The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1887-02-11
AEELNG WEsT VA FRIDAY MORNING FEnRUA1RY

ten miles wide, Is lake Ponchartrain, an
on tho other lake Boryne, aud you ma
imagine thst II .was not oasy to get al
elavs.ed and Holid road bad for railroa,
through such swamp. When tell 20,
that alligasors from six TO ten foot lon
Will como up 10 tho very edgo Of tho roa,
bod and sun themselves at full Ienptt
almost under tho wheels OF tho train 70,
Will still better appreciate tho character O
this interesting strip Of country oye
which the great city 81 New Orleans h
reached from the East. .l.r l.5T.5 =, n
wish, photography had been know
when the French frs. settled New
Orleans In order that we might have hat
handed down to us view Of its origina
alto In state OF nature. I5I5'TT
suppose It WIS tho big turn in the
Mississippi river at that point aud The
peninsula lying botwoen. and tho close
proximity OF the lakes referred 10, that in.
dicated 1t as the proper place ior com.
mercial settlement, although It must at
that early day ll7l7) have been little elae
than dreary md bottomless sort OF ouac.
mire. 1zft4rs l5l'I55.l y T,1'l,S ~ 20.
Tho Mississippi river makes a bend at
this point preciaely like sickle, ithe
handle down streani) and not like the let.
tar s as so often pictured, and the main
part OF the city Is built In the hollow oi
the sickle. Owing to its peculiar location
Inc sun riscs ACROSS the river and al!
strangers nro confused by seeing the
morning sta apparently In q western sky.
This Viait was my aixth one to New
Orleans, commencing as far back as 1871,
and really 1t appeared 10 me less Of CITY
this time than on my first visit. It Seem.
cd 90 very quiet in tho old busines, cen.
ters and at tho river front. Captain Wm.
Campbell met a number OF us at tho
mouth OF Canal street, just as we got of
tho cars, and Insisted that we shonid 90
across thu river and inspect his new boat
the Bsirne) which lie considers tho last
| oi its raco on the lower Mississlppi. and
even this boat Is bolow tho standard Of the
Lee and the White, now no moro. "The
railroad have killed our, business dead .
said tho Captain, "and we do not carry
enough passengers to pay cabin ex xpenses, y
VISIT TO AN OLD WHEELING FRIEND.
l dropped in to see my old friend, James
Bodley, in his new warehouse on s..
Charles street. I found tho half OF it
boarded up and for ront, and lie said bus.
inees was next to nothing. His main bus.
mess is with sugar planters, and tho i'm.
msnse production Of boot sugar in Europe
has about given sugar in Louisiana its
everlasting quie!us. Said he to me, "You
remember O sugar planter to whom in
troduced you once mentioning his namsl.
don't you? Well, no returned to Nav
York dead broke the other day, after hsy.
ing dropped six hundred thousand ljo]ler,
in this country" 7Ti71c
At the Pickwicls Club, where we ware
entertained one evening during out STAY
IN the city, We had a representative Of tLo
sugar interest OH tho committee OF enter.
tainmon:, and he said a. the table that
Governor Warmarth's place below the
city, the most noted sugar plantation in
tho Stale, whore three hundred thousand
dollars had been expended, would not
bring over $50, 600 If offered for sa.e, !.
The cotton interest in New, Orleans ia OF
course tue interest, aud yet it is au interest
that is in its dscadence. Th, planters Of
the Miss!ssippi valley have long complain
ed that they are systematically robbed by
New Ofleans. Governor McEuesy oncp
told me thst it cost the planters 25 percent
for money in Nsw Orleans. The cotton
planters themselves have confirmed this
statementto ME. Hence their hostility to
New Orleana is widespread and their wits
are a: work to-day, aud for msny 8 dar
past, deviaing ways and means to get out
Of the clutehea OF tho New Orleans cotton
factors. Some are shipping to other mar
keta and some are selling direct to buvers
on their plantations. : Sa5[ ~
The passage OF tho Interstate commerce
bill by Congress- is hailed Ly the New
Orleans papers Us q good piecs OF leyisls.
tlon Tor tha! city, because OF tho sect;oa
that forbida railroads from charyinc more
lot short than e long haul; Captain Tom
Ptince, OF Wheeling, who has two boats
down IN this country, aays that it has nd.
vanced steamboat stock ae least 25 percent,
as they will now regain their sharn of the
cotton carrying trado from such points as
Vicksburg ard Natchez. = I
This letter is already long enough, and
in the Language OF darkey preacher
whom heard q few days ago, ~ will not
longer ascertain the congregation" Our car
lett New Orleaus for. the up country at s
o'clock on the morning Of the 2O.h Of
January Wis the new Mississippi valley
route, the Louisville, New Orleans and
Texas Railway, which !. is simply The
Southern division OF Huntinqton's great
line known in Virginia, West Virginia and
Kentucky as the Chesapeake and Ohio;
q line that extends from deep water nj tho
mouth OF the James river in Virginia
through that State to Charles!on, and
Huntington in West Virginia, and thonce
on down the Ohio to Cincinnati, Louis-
ville aud Msmphis, from which last
named place it is, as I have said, called
tho"L., N. 0. & IT," or "Alissiaaippi Val.
10y route" 4 "a 5=g :.
VALUABLE ROAD. na'
You will notice that considerable was
said in the New Orleans papers Of this
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